Discover the secrets to perfect garden soil and successful seed germination.

Begin tracking sunlight. Once the leaves are out, establish the number of light hours. Leave a sheet of paper in the garden and go out several times throughout the day from sun-up to sun-down and note if the garden is in full sun.

Gather and clean reusable materials like plastic trays, seed cups, planters, thin-stream or sprayer bottle to water seedlings. Other optional materials you may want for seed starting: peat pots and pellets and seed trays with clear plastic domes. If you will be container gardening, choose and assemble containers and soil.

In Pots: Use a commercial potting or seed starting mix (if starting small seeds). You can re-use potting soil (except for tomatoes!), but you’ll want to add 1-part compost to 3-parts used potting soil.

Raised Beds: Use a blend of topsoil, compost, coconut coir, and perlite. Should be 6-12 inches deep.

Topsoil: can purchase screened topsoil which should be dark brown when dry—not gray! If your existing soil is decent, you can use soil from where the bed is going or from paths between beds.

Compost: use your own or it’s best to use several different brands to make sure to get a blend of nutrients. We like Coast of Maine products.

Perlite is a volcanic rock that is popped like popcorn. It keeps your soil light and helps create air and moisture pockets.

Coconut Coir: sustainable unlike peat moss.

Flat-Earth Garden Beds: Test your soil as described above and also test drainage. If you have decent soil, either double dig or till, and mulch with compost.

What Is Good Soil For Vegetables?

We could get into a lot of detail like percentage of organic matter, how fast it drains, fertility, and micronutrients, but we are going to stick to some simple rules of thumb today.

Squeeze Test:

Grab a handful of moist soil and make a fist. Then poke it.

If it forms a ball and then falls apart when poked, you’ve got perfect loamy garden soil for veggies!

If it won’t form a ball, it’s too sandy.

If it forms a hard lump that doesn’t fall apart when poked, it’s clay.

For clay or sand, you’ll need to add more organic matter, e.g. compost.

Poke Test:

Try sinking a finger into your soil. It should be easy to sink a finger in to the knuckle.

Sniff Test:

Healthy soil smells pleasant. Any off odors probably indicate poor drainage.

Solar Energy: How much sun do you need?

Full Sun = 8 hours of direct sun for fruiting crops: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini

Partial Sun = 4-6 hours of direct sun for: root vegetables like carrots, beets, radishes. Also green Beans, brassica family like broccoli, bok choy, cabbage, cauliflower

Light Shade = 2-4 hours of direct sun for leafy greens: lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, Swiss chard

How To Germinate Seeds

Instructions in a Nutshell: Plant twice as deep as the diameter, pat down, and keep moist. This is true for in a tray or direct into the ground.

Soil: For small seeds, it’s important that the soil is fine. Tiny lettuce or basil seeds won’t be able to poke their way up around a pebble or stick. Seed starting soil can be purchased for this reason. Fine potting soil will also work. Best to wet soil in a bucket before adding to tray or seed containers. Bagged soil, if it is very dry, needs to be worked to absorb the water.

Depth: Check the seed pack for directions. If you aren’t good at eyeballing distances, measure at first to get a general idea. You’ll want to pay attention to both how deep the seeds are going to be, how far apart from their neighbors in the row, and how far apart from the neighboring row.

For tiny seeds, you can just sprinkle on top of soil and then gently stir in with a fingertip and then pack down. Alternatively, sprinkle fine soil on top of seeds.

For medium seeds, use a hoe or trowel to create a furrow of the right depth, sow the seeds at the desired spacing, then backfill the furrow and pat down.

For large seeds, sow one at a time by pushing into the soil with a fingertip to the desired depth.

Watering: Keep seeds evenly moist until they germinate, but don’t drown them!

A mister is perfect (some hose attachments are misters).

A watering can works well.

Indoors, set seed flats in a tray and bottom water.